I bought the newer sail cover (the one with a silvery finish), which was a tight—but acceptable—fit on my furled sail. The first time that I started to remove the cover, however, my mast separated! My Bravo was assembled by the dealer, so I didn’t know that the mast comes in two pieces. The small circular cord that held the sail to the bottom of the mast had come unattached somehow, and pulling on the tight sail cover caused my mast to separate. Apparently, the sail itself is the only thing keeping the mast from separating—the sail attaches at the top and bottom of the mast, which is why pulling a tight sail cover off would normally not cause the mast to separate.

I removed the sail from the mast and found that the two mast sections telescope together. The female one has two rivets in it, and the male one has two U-shaped cutouts at its bottom, which mate with the rivets and keep the two halves from moving relative to each other. There were also two tape-like bands around the male section, perhaps to ensure a snug fit. Anyway, I fit the two pieces back together, slid the sail back on, and tightened the cord at the bottom to hopefully prevent a recurrence.

My question is, are the two mast sections supposed to be rigidly attached to each other? As it stands, mine are not, though they mate snugly, which means that the sail is the only thing keeping them from separating (that and gravity, given that when the mast is upright, it would be almost impossible for the two halves to separate, but what if I capsize and the bottom of the sail detaches again and I’m stuck with a separated mast out in the water somewhere?).

--Bob

_________________"I wonder why we don't have any LARGE craft advisories? Apparently we don't care about the big boats."

Oh, this is great--thanks. My mast actually has two different slots and two different rivets...maybe the dealer messed up when assembling it and had to jury-rig it to some extent. Also, I see the detail as to how the downhaul is routed and rigged and tensioned. I printed out the appropriate pages and will go out and do it right. Thanks again for the help.

--Bob

_________________"I wonder why we don't have any LARGE craft advisories? Apparently we don't care about the big boats."